East China Province, Binhai City.

After nightfall, Central Street was still bustling with neon lights and lively bars.

Fashionably dressed men and women came and went.

Among them, a young man looked out of place.

He had a cigarette in his mouth, was wearing old jeans and a T-shirt, and carried a large woven bag on his back.

He rummaged through every bin he passed.

His name was Long Fei, orphaned early and raised by his grandfather.

After the college entrance exams, he tore up his acceptance letter, lied to his grandfather that he didn't get into college, and came here to work alone.

When he first arrived, he wandered aimlessly like a headless fly.

He didn't know what he could do, nor where to find work, so he survived by picking up trash temporarily.

An old scrap collector had taught him this trade.

A bottle for a dime, he worked diligently and could collect over a thousand in one day, making over a hundred yuan.

In his village, this sum was unimaginable.

Still, picking bottles wasn't a respectable job.

Walking the streets, he often received disdainful stares.

Central Street was a stretch of bars in Binhai City.

The street lay beside a river, lined with antique-style buildings—either bars, coffee houses, or KTVs, all bustling at night.

Where there were young people, there were lots of discarded bottles.

Long Fei had filled his plastic bag half-way down the street.

He found a secluded corner, took off his trousers, and urinated.

City toilets charged a fee.

Long Fei was reluctant; a yuan could buy an ice pop!

After he finished and was pulling up his trousers,

a metal door nearby suddenly opened, and five or six young men emerged, dragging along a woman with them.

Long Fei quickly found a power pole to hide behind.

Fortunately, the dim light meant the group didn't see him.

He was always very careful when urinating, fearing city folks would scold him for being unsanitary.

In this alley, there was a broken table.

The young men put the woman on top; she lay there, her long, dark hair spread out.

She was wearing a black mini-skirt suit, her figure striking.

A few of the young men lit cigarettes and burst into laughter, "Young Master Wuu, who would've thought we'd encounter such a stunner tonight!"

"Is that drug strong enough?"

"Don't worry, it's concocted by a master; I paid a hefty price for it!"

"Well then, later on we..."

The group laughed unabashedly as Long Fei frowned.

What the hell, he had encountered a bunch of perverts.

From the sound of it, they must have drugged the girl.

Long Fei's expression hardened as he hesitated whether he should intervene.

A couple of days ago, on the street,

a woman was shouting as she was beaten by a man; when he stepped in to kick the man to help her,

she not only didn't thank him but cursed him for meddling and hitting her man.

Ultimately, she called the cops, and he was taken to the police station and locked up for a day.

Long Fei's heart had turned cold; he cursed the city dwellers as heartless and swore never to intervene again.

He reasoned women frequenting these kinds of bars couldn't be decent.

So, he grabbed his plastic bag, ready to sneak away quietly.

Who could have known the woman on the table would suddenly struggle, rolling on the ground and crying out in agony, "Help, save me!"

"Whoa, she's woken up! Don't worry, darling, your knights in shining armor are on their way to save you!"

A group of young men sneered as they closed in on the woman.

"Beasts!"

Long Fei's eyes bulged as his sense of justice surged; there was no way he could sit idly by.

His plastic bag was filled with quite a few glass bottles.

Swung properly, it could be used as a hammer.

"Bastards, you bunch of hooligans, let me go!" cried the woman, struggling in pain, her speech slurred.

Her frailty not only failed to deter them but seemed to excite them even more.

Long Fei charged forward, cursing loudly, "Stop, let go of that girl!"

The four or five young men shuddered and all turned to look at Long Fei.

Upon getting a clearer view, they realized just who had approached them.

The group, seeing Long Fei's ragged appearance, sneered disdainfully, "A trash picker, looking for death, are you?"

"Fuck, where did this bastard spring out from? You scared me shitless!"

"Motherfucker, you country bumpkin, get the hell out of here!"

One of them picked up a bottle from behind and cursed at Long Fei as he approached.

Long Fei tensed, ready to fight, pointed at them, and bellowed, "You are shameless, having sex in public, bullying a woman, is there no law anymore?"

Though he was broad-waisted and robust, standing six feet tall.

Dealing with five young men, he still wasn't entirely confident.

"Motherfucker, you're truly asking for a beatdown!"

A young man holding a bottle came at him, swinging it directly at Long Fei's head.

Long Fei stepped back and also swung his woven bag full force at his attacker.

With about a dozen bottles inside, heavy as rocks, the bag smacked into the young man's head with a crash.

The man screamed in pain, toppling to the ground from the heavy blow.

The other young men hadn't expected Long Fei to fight so fiercely; the leader groped in his pocket and pulled out a folding knife, which he swiftly opened.

Brandishing sticks and bottles, he and three other young men closed in on Long Fei, cursing loudly, "Kid, you've got too much free time, meddling in Young Master Wuu's business. Believe it or not, I could kill you, and no one would bat an eye."

Long Fei sneered coldly, "Stop trying to scare me. If you've got the guts, fight; if not, get lost!"

Young Master Wuu's face darkened, and he signaled the three young men with a wave of his hand, shouting, "Kill him!"

A group instantly surrounded Long Fei and attacked.

Wielding his woven bag, Long Fei struck them repeatedly.

The sound of glass shattering filled the air as three young men were beaten to the ground by his ferocious swings.

Long Fei also took a blow to the head, blood starting to flow from his forehead.

He turned around too slowly to react,

and Young Master Wuu's knife thrust fiercely, stabbing into his chest.

The blade hesitated for a moment as it struck the jade pendant hanging from his neck.

Young Master Wuu exerted great force, shattering the pendant with the knife's tip, penetrating half an inch into Long Fei's body.

Long Fei inhaled sharply from the pain, then swung his hand, slapping Young Master Wuu across the face with a smack, sending him crashing to the ground.

Young Master Wuu was about the same size as Long Fei, but his body had long been hollowed out by a life of debauchery.

Several of his teeth were knocked out by the slap, and as he fell, Long Fei stomped down on him, knocking him out cold.

Long Fei touched the fresh blood on his neck, ignoring the pain, grabbed the plastic bag with his left hand, hoisted the woman from the ground with his right, and bolted out of the alley.

This was the second time fighting in the city, and he was worried about ending up in jail again.

After leaving the alley, he ran through the darkest streets he could find, finally settling on a small hotel by the street.

Gritting his teeth, he spent a hundred yuan to rent a standard room, planning to leave after setting the woman down.

Carrying such a beauty, anyone unaware would suspect him of misconduct!